The Status of Roleplay and the Factory System

[Sarge Potteiger]

I put optional in parentheses because we aren't allowed to ignore someones "optional" tech when engaging them, so while it's optional for someone to use the factory, the factory itself cannot be ignored.

It does not reflect poorly on the board at all. We're a board founded on freedom. Freedom of creativity, to do what you want. Who cares about their tech? No one said their super special blaster rifle of supernova potential had to be acknowledged as such. You control the damage you take, and guess what that means?

What their subs do to you is optional.

 

[Allyson Locke]

What their subs do to you is optional.

Been waiting for someone to point this out. *gives sarge a gold star*

 

[Seris Caine]

It does not reflect poorly on the board at all. We're a board founded on freedom. Freedom of creativity, to do what you want. Who cares about their tech? No one said their super special blaster rifle of supernova potential had to be acknowledged as such. You control the damage you take, and guess what that means?

What their subs do to you is optional.

Until they report you for not taking damage from their god weapon.

But as you say, all optional. I'll keep that in mind from now on. God tech got nothing on me.

But again, this is all digression from the original topic, which was to discuss people's motivations for tech creation.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

But again, this is all digression from the original topic, which was to discuss people's motivations for tech creation.

No, the original discussion was a thinly veiled attempt to start pleasant discourse with a dangling piece of bait at the bottom that said, 'hey, Factory, why don't you do your job better.'

Let's not lie to ourselves. Honesty isn't optional.

 

[Allyson Locke]

Until they report you for not taking damage from their god weapon.

I'm still missing the part where the weapon is so godlike that you can't figure out a way around it. Everything in the factory has a down side - nothing is perfect. Might take you a second to think outside the box, but there's always a way. Also, there's something called communication that really helps with RPing too. Ask questions/clarifications if something is confusing.

I enjoyed my latest fight with [member="Vrag"] - her Vong stuff is top tier and she did an amazing job with research and creating of her armor and weapons. They're not much stronger than what is Canon for the Vong (Like most tech in general). I didn't know much about the Vong, but I asked questions and she was wonderful and clarified things for me. I lost, but I came out understanding the stuff a lot better.

You're stressing so much on how the factory is ruining and making things unfair in RP. In honesty like what [member="Sarge Potteiger"] the factory is optional - you don't have to participate with it. On an even larger scale, not even 2/3s of the board participate in the factory. Its there for the people to make toys and have fun.

There's nothing wrong with the Factory or the Codex. The staffs for both creation forums have done their best to keep things as "fair" as possible, stop focusing so hard on OOC and Tech and just have fun. Its all a game. [member="Barrien Siegfried"]

 

[Cryax Bane]

For example, when it became clear that the OS was hacking the GR comms, I developed a communications system that would alleviate that issue.

Did you make those M.I.T.E.'s?

*silently curses you*

Seriously though, I love those those things.

 

[Seris Caine]

It is all a game yes, but it's a game that certain people play to win so hard they forget that other people are here to write a story, not deal with Mr. CannotBeHitCuzArmor.

Anyway, no, I actually did mean this as a discussion of what people's motivations were because I do have some concerns that some people's motivations are less than honorable when it comes to tech creation. The fact that I detest how certain people get away with things that others cannot only came up as a byproduct of the discussion.

Fairness has never been equal opportunity on this board. It's why I waited a long time to join it after leaving TGC. BUT, that was not my intent with creating this topic for discussion.

Did you make those M.I.T.E's?

*silently curses you*

Seriously though, I love those those things.

I did, yes.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

To be clear, I could wear a bathrobe and still not be hit by anything. The factory doesn't enable cheating or god modding, it sometimes gives people an excuse - but they're people who would do it with or without a sub.

 

[Seris Caine]

but they're people who would do it with or without a sub.

True statement. The factory doesn't inherently enable anything. It is an inanimate construct. It's the people, the "RPers," that enable things.

 

[Valiens Nantaris]

[member="Barrien Siegfried"]
Right, so if we banned everyone we'd finally have the perfect RP forum with no drama!

...No posts either.

 

[Kurayami Bloodborn]

I am currently working on my first sub for the Factory. Custom starship for my PC. However I'm not one who does PvP type things anyways, never did find it too fun personally. So why even bother? For me it is so my character has something that is inherently his, plus every other time I have written him he has had something he built by hand, figured he may as well here too. Plus as was mentioned earlier, it's fun.

 

[Seris Caine]

I am currently working on my first sub for the Factory. Custom starship for my PC. However I'm not one who does PvP type things anyways, never did find it too fun personally. So why even bother? For me it is so my character has something that is inherently his, plus every other time I have written him he has had something he built by hand, figured he may as well here too. Plus as was mentioned earlier, it's fun.

That's a reasonable reason to make a starship.

 

[Seraphina Shel'tah]

[member="Barrien Siegfried"]
Right, so if we banned everyone we'd finally have the perfect RP forum with no drama!

...No posts either.

Does that constitute victory then?

 

[Antoir Setrrin]

I like making subs so I can have a reference for what my gear looks like, what it can do, and what its weak points are. Mostly I just like having the info on my gear in a nice organized space that I can go back to whenever I want. As great as my memory can be when it comes to random story information, I occasionally forget whether or not my character is wearing a helmet... and if they should be wearing one.

 

[Jsc]

Q: Why do people use the Factory?
A: Because reasons.

Q: Sometimes I get frustrated at other people's submissions?
A: Welp.

Q: Sometimes I get frustrated that people are playing to win?
A: Yep.

Q: Sometimes I wish I was a pony?
A: Aww.

Q: So, why are people...?
A: Exactly.

[member="Barrien Siegfried"] - Roleplaying, (like life), is open to interpretation. Imagine greater.

 

[Ellie Mors]

I put optional in parentheses because we aren't allowed to ignore someones "optional" tech when engaging them

I was under the strict impression that we are allowed to ignore anyone's post if we feel so inclined. Staff hasn't made any official stance on the situation, and as of this post linked right here, it has been stated (however distasteful and rude it might be) that anyone is permitted to ignore all or part of someone's post because it is not in violation of the rules.

Obviously you won't be greeted with roses and chocolates if you do this, but you can do it. Of course this is obviously subject to change because there has been no formal decision made on this.

Now, because I'm saying this, do I agree with ignoring posts, just because I or someone else doesn't personally like them or their toys? No, I think writing, even roleplaying, requires sucking up those frustrations and dealing with problems through intellectual means. Now if there is something clearly being abused, like someone trying to dictate damage on your person, then by all means ignore away - and report if that is your thing.

 

[Ellie Mors]

As for my actual reason for making submissions to the factory, it is because that is what drew me into the site to begin with - because I am probably the most distant, busy, inactive poster you will have that will always try to worm my way into being as attached to every character I write with ever, my (other) character is now an NPC for another writer because of how sluggish I am with posting - and it has always been my thing to think up various concepts, like a visual sensor/camera which is designed to pick up ships that hide from standard sensors. Now I have a place for all those things. Do I use any of the ships I've submitted? No. Do I use any of the vehicles I've submitted? No. Can anyone else use them? Of course.

I've submitted 8, maybe 9, lightsabers, and I believe two of them were specially treated with alchemy, all of which were made to personalize something that sees so much use but people don't normally care about. I care more about my characters' story, and I mean their actual story, not how they impact X or help Y, or how faction Z was effected by them - I don't care about anyone but the characters that I write and the people that grow exceptionally close to them. I still make mistakes doing it that way, but I could care less about how Silara's loss on Kashyyk, completely intentional, effected the One Sith, or how her death on Ziost effected the Primeval. The same goes to the equipment and special things my characters make, wear, don't wear, don't use, and so on.

I had a character, now NPC, Lily Kirsche Kuhn, that had her own custom-designed clothing made for her, fitted for her, and I submitted it just so I could do a thread with one of [member="Sarge Potteiger"]'s characters and focus how much into haute couture she was and how he needed something other than skin-tight leather pants and shirts, forget about that dingy helmet too. Did they have neat things like glistaweb to protect from stray or indirect blasterfire? Of course, she's the daughter of a multi-million/billionaire and ran her own company. And she made a pendant with her beginner's understanding of alchemy out of the depression and guilt she felt when her sister lost her connection to the force, knowing she'd have to one day make up for that loss of dynamic.

This character, Braith, is the only one I've actually submitted actual armor and such with, though even the armor was to reflect how old of a culture she comes from having been from ten thousand and some-odd years ago, on a primitive planet where they fought with swords, spears, and so on. The sword was more or less an ambitious project, sure, but it was again under the presumption that little had changed from then-to-now. Obviously Contruum has woken her up to the drastic change from a planet without blaster technology to a galaxy with lightsabers, living weapons of the Yuuzhan Vong variety, and so on. But those are the only things she had created which had been specifically for that kind of a situation, other things like simmersilk or the necklace she made for Corvus Raaf were creations made first (for simmersilk) to earn a living, and second to appease her blossoming relationship with the Jedi Grand Master, as well as to double as an one-time shield talisman that also feeds and "purifies" the dark side of the force. Any other creation this character made was entirely for her history purposes.

So, really, if you take a big look at what I do for most of my submissions that aren't for companies, such as what most of Lily's submissions had been as far as ships went, it was purely for various things that popped up in character development or to create relics that would highlight how the past would have been, in Braith's case.

 

[Onrai]

Personally, I make guns nowadays that are designed to be min-max. They can easily kill a human - unless they come up against one form of armor that renders them completely and utterly useless. It encourages other people to further on the virtual arms race and proceed onwards to make new submissions. That's how progress is supposed to work, after all.

*conveniently ignores being the guy who made a tactical nuke*

 

[Nyxie]

Personally, I make guns nowadays that are designed to be min-max. They can easily kill a human - unless they come up against one form of armor that renders them completely and utterly useless. It encourages other people to further on the virtual arms race and proceed onwards to make new submissions. That's how progress is supposed to work, after all.

Yes, and competition breeds activity, but do you know what else competition breeds? Opposition. At that point, everyone is too busy finding ways to get around the ways their enemy found to get around their ways -- a vicious cycle -- and nobody remembers the actual purpose of it all: to have fun. What's more, tech bred through this means usually gets used once and then is forgotten once the thread is over because everyone will have adapted to even newer ways to try and counter one-another. >>




This whole entire thread can be summarized as: "People will write a little OP sometimes: Get over it."

 

[Rusty]

Why do I submit things in the factory? Because I like making big guns. Big guns are fun. Plus, for every Factory Judge that develops a nervous tic at the mere thought of me submitting something, I'm going to paint a bottle of Prozac on Gertrude.

Bottom line is, you're going to get as much out of the Factory and your fellow RPers as you want. If you want to have fun and come up with cool designs, you'll have fun while coming up with cool designs. If you want to turn your name into a swear word in their private chat, you'll have to stand in line because I called dibs on that first.

If, on the other hand, you want to create a thread solely for the purpose of calling to task a group of people who, despite repeated attempts to impugn their integrity and professionalism and malign their motives have stayed remarkably calm about the whole thing, then all you're going to get is a reputation for being a curmudgeon. As a wise man in a cowboy hat once said: